Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2018 i T3

ABSOLUTELY SUPER, CAR The 4.0-litre bi-turbo V8 is good for 650BHP and 627lb ft of torque and thanks to its four-wheel drive system and eight-speed automatic gearbox, it’ll out-accelerate most cars off the line (just 3.6 seconds to 62mph) IT’LL GO OFF ROAD! With three off-road modes, the Urus is perfectly adept on a variety of off-road surfaces too The Range Rover Sport SVR. Porsche’s Cayenne Turbo. And Tesla’s Model X. If you want an SUV and you want it to go really fast – these are the machines to do it. But in a sea of SUVs, even these supercharged versions have become a bit prosaic. To stand out among the crowd, and get your kids to private school/nip to Waitrose faster than ever, you need something unique; something…

1 ACNE STUDIOS ROVER BOUCLE COAT Future-proof your winter wardrobe with this doublebreasted, fully lined wool overcoat, featuring strong peaked lapels and deep flap pockets. £1,650, acnestudios.com/uk/en 2 REISS FRA NCISCO DOUBLE BREAS TED OVERCOAT Camel coats continue their reign this month, and Reiss’s soft cashmere blend overcoat with notched lapels is a favourite. £375, reiss.com 3 TOPMAN BLACK AND WHITE TEXTURED OVERCOAT This single-breasted overcoat looks great with tailored joggers and knits, and can be thrown on over jeans for a sharper pub look. £85, topman.com 4 WO OY OUNGMI OVERSIZED POCKET COAT Try the oversized trend with Wooyoungmi’s quirky wool blend coat. We love the large letterbox pockets and that striking blue hue. £1,015, farfetch.com 5 TIGER OF SWEDEN EGAL 4 COAT The slim-fit Egal 4 smartens up…

The Foreo Luna 2 for Men (£169, foreo.com) is a palmsized facial brush designed to cleanse, tone and prep skin for shaving. It has textured dual sides: one for cleansing, one for anti-ageing. The brush is small but not slippery when wet, thanks to an easy-grip antibacterial silicone covering. Foreo claims the brush has 450 uses per charge, and while we haven’t been using it that long, ours is still going strong after a month’s use. There are 12 levels of intensity, depending on individual skin needs. We used the brush morning and night, applying a cleanser to our face then moving the brush in small circles over our skin for one minute as instructed. It was clear from the first use that Foreo’s T-Sonic tech (8,000 pulsations per minute)…

Could you see yourself driving a bright green sports car? Does the thought of flooring it at 195mph make you squeal with excitement rather than choke back fear? If so, Aston Martin’s new Vantage could be your dream ride when it rolls out next spring/summer There’s nothing shy about this beast: the V8 engine-toting new Vantage is menacing and rocks an aerodynamic performance that aims to leave other rides in the dust. Fancy a spin? The keys are yours, if you can pony up the starting price of £120,900 (astonmartin.com).…

Normally, top-end specs come with a top-end price, but Honor’s new handset breaks with this tech tradition. The 7X offers huge features at a £269.99 price tag, which means your next big tech buy could be the Honor 7X and that other sweet gadget on your list. Here’s why you should save big money versus the £999 of an iPhone X or £869 of a Samsung Note8 by grabbing the 7X, and get just as much cutting-edge smartphone for a lot less cash. 1 HONOR FULLVIEW DISPLAY The Honor 7X has one of the highest screen-to-body ratios of any phone – on a par with the much pricier Galaxy S8 – so it fits perfectly in your hand, yet it offers a virtually bezel-less 18:9 5.93- inch screen with a…

1 GO TRAVEL ULTIMATE MEMORY PILLOW Getting sleep on a plane can be tricky, but this pillow is comfortable and supportive. £24.99, gotravelproducts.com 2 MAYFAIR 10.5” KNOMA DORGANISER Keep travel and digital accessories in one place with this compact and water-resistant bag. £59, knomobags.com 3 APPLE IPAD 9.7-INCH Overwhelmed by the amount of TV shows you’ve downloaded? Catch up on iPad and while away those long hours in the sky. From £339, apple.com 4 SILKSKIN EYE MASK Avoid jet lag with this lavender-infused eye mask, to help block out the world. £42, silkskin.co.uk 5 MOLESKINE CAHIER’S COLLECTION JOURNAL These hardcover journals, available with plain or ruled pages, are perfect for your travel notes. From £6.99, gb.moleskin.com…

Ice climbing is a superb way to burn calories, gain functional strength and improve cardio fitness. To do it you’ll need crampons, ice axes… and the spirit of Spider-Man. Ice climbing on real mountains needs experience or a qualified guide, but the UK has several indoor centres where you can give this sport a go. Scotland’s Ice Factor (ice-factor.co.uk) packs 500 tonnes of real snow and ice into a 12 metre-high wall, with routes for beginner climbers and ice climbing experts. Vertical Chill, in London and Manchester, (verticalchill.com) has an eight metre wall that gets steeper the higher you climb, with temperatures inside ‘the fridge’ ranging from -5 to -12 degrees. You could also try Kong Adventure in the Lake District (kongadventure.com) and Snowdonia Adventures (snowdonia-adventures.co.uk). Kit can be hired,…

DARK Netflix’s first foreign-language show is being called the German Stranger Things. In a small town, children have started going missing, and a teenage boy travels back in time… BATTLE CHEF BRIGAGE Out now on Switch and Steam, puzzle platformer Battle Chef Brigade tasks you with ridding the land of wretched monsters, then cooking them for tasty meals. It’s all very thrifty. THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT This seven-part podcast goes behind the scenes of the porn industry, telling the experiences of performers and directors. Jon Ronson’s writing is very funny and also strangely moving.…

SMART LOCK A door you can unlock remotely is an obvious bonus to have with a smart doorbell, so you can let the postie drop off a parcel, or the dog-walker in. Ring integrates directly with some models (see bit.ly/ringlocks for a list of products) but it’s one area where controlling it manually is fine. ECHO SHOW & FIRE TV There’s an Alexa skill for Amazon’s smart assistant gear that has a screen, so say, “Alexa, show my front door,” to an Echo Show or Fire TV and you’ll get the live feed from the doorbell camera. It works with Ring’s other smart cameras too. SMART LIGHTS The Ring 2 doesn’t integrate directly with smart light systems, but it does work with IFTTT.com, so you can create your own triggers,…

A smart plug enables you to turn any gadget connected to it into a smart controlled device. They work by connecting to your Wi-Fi network so that you can turn them on and off using your phone from anywhere in the world over the internet. That means you can plug one in the wall, then connect a room lamp. From the app, you’re then able to turn that lamp on and off, or set a timer, since its power is now controlled by the smart plug. Smart plugs don’t have to be expensive, as shown by the likes of the TP-LINK HS100 (£25, currys.co.uk) and EpochAir (£19, amazon.co.uk). Many of them can also be controlled via Alexa and some support Apple HomeKit, so they easily fit into part of a…

In the smartphone and tablet age, we’re adept at holding a portable screen out at arm’s length to snap a picture or capture a video. But, with SLR cameras, originally without any screen, the convention was always to hold the camera up to your eye and peer through its pokey viewfinder to set up the shot. Nowadays, mirrorless digital cameras tend to offer the choice of both – eye-level shooting for the photo enthusiasts, and the by-now more familiar option of a large backplate screen. Which you prefer largely comes down to personal taste, but at least visibility via an eye-level finder won’t suffer in strong sunlight, as an LCD might, so having both is a bonus. Canon is the only camera here without an eye-level finder however.…

1 MANFROTTO BEFREE ADVANCED An Italian-made premium travel tripod for owners of mirrorless cameras and DSLRs with a choice of two set-up options: go for either twist-lock legs or lever lock. A flexible ball head features three independent controls for more precise adjustments. £174.95, manfrotto.co.uk 2 TENBA DNA 15 BACKPACK A contemporary graphite-coloured pack for those photographers who don’t want to advertise the fact they’re carrying a camera body and assortment of lenses. It’s fairly lightweight for its type too at 1.7Kg, and can also house a 15-inch laptop. £165, tenba.com 3 BILLINGHAM 72 Of course you may not want a fully featured pack, and maybe a more retro-styled shoulder sling appeals? Enter this secure but lightweight option for mirrorless cameras, available in canvas or extra rugged ‘FyberNyte’ material. Includes…

SPECIFICATIONS Price From £999 Processor 7th Gen Intel Core i5 or i7 Storage 128GB, 256GB or 512GB SSD RAM 8GB or 16GB Screen 12.3-inch 2400x1600 LCD (235ppi) Audio Dual speakers Connections 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, 2x USB-C, 3.5mm audio jack Camera 720p (60fps) Dimensions 290.4x220.8x10.3mm Weight 1.1kg From £999 google.com If you’re in the market for a premium notebook, you’re spoilt for choice these days. Long gone are the days when a MacBook Pro was your only option. Of course, we’d argue that’s still one of the best laptops out there, but there is also a plethora of stunning Windows ultraportables to pore over, with Microsoft having polished and refined its Surface line-up in 2017. And now, here we are at the cusp of a new year, and Google has…

SPECIFICATIONS Price £700 Screen 5.7-inch, 1440x2560 LCD Storage 64GB Operating system Android 7.1 Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 RAM 8GB Camera 12MP, f/1.75 Wide, 12MP f/2.6 Zoom Dimensions 158.5x77.7x8mm Weight 197g Connectivity Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, USB-C, NFC £700 razerzone.com The Razer Phone classifies itself as a gaming phone, but it’s also the perfect device for entertainment, whether that’s watching movies or listening to music, thanks to an amazing screen with technology not seen in a phone before, brilliant speakers, and a design that makes it easy to hold in landscape mode. Taking inspiration from Razer’s range of gaming laptops, the phone is crafted from matt-black aluminium, giving it the appearance of a stealth jet. The rear casing features a contrasting black Razer logo on the back giving away its identity (a…

If you’re looking for the very best tech available today, you have definitely come to the right place. Best of the Best is the most useful gadget-buying guide you will ever encounter. To create it, we’ve ruthlessly filtered down to the biggest groups, to bring you rock-solid recommendations for your home life, daily commute and the tech you use all the time. Within each of those groups, we’ve got a dozen categories for key tech buys. We’ve picked one product for every category that we think is the best you can get on balance, taking into account price, quality and features, so it’s easy to know what you need in your life. You should also check out T3.com, where you’ll find even more categories, if you’re looking for something that…

ANDROID PHONE SAMSUNG GALAXY S8 Tremendously fast, with an Infinity Display that almost completely eliminates bezels, cameras that work in any light, and irisscanning security. Samsung’s flagship is as much an experience as it is a phone. From £579, samsung.com MID-RANGE PHONE HONOR 9 Coming in at half the price of a flagship phone, this is truly a hidden gem. It looks great, with a diffracted curved glass finish, and its cost completely belies its specs – especially its excellent dual cameras. £379, hihonor.com SMARTWATCH APPLE WATCH SERIES 3 Nothing in the smartwatch market does more than the Apple Watch, and this third generation can do it all without a tethered phone – perfect for keeping your life in order whatever you happen to be doing. From £329, apple.com/uk ANALOGUE…

VOICE ASSISTANT AMAZON ECHO Alexa is everywhere these days, but nowhere is Amazon’s AI more at home than in its Echo. It couples an awesome array microphone with pleasing design for the perfect assistant experience. £90, amazon.co.uk SMART DOORBELL RING VIDEO DOO RBELL 2 Part motion-detecting security camera, part ring-anywhere doorbell, the Video Doorbell 2 alerts you via your smartphone when you have a visitor – and you can two-way talk even if you’re not home. £179, ring.com LIFESTYLE WI-FI CAMERA NEST CAM This indoor cam streams sharp HD video to your phone or computer, and can alert you when it senses motion or sound, so you can tune in – with an 8x zoom and 130-degree view, you won’t miss a thing. £159, nest.com/uk DOOR & WINDOW SENSORS HIVE…

ULTRAPORTABLE LAPTOP HP SPECTRE 13 Simply the most glamorous and handsome laptop you can buy today, and that doesn’t mean sacrificing power, either: HP has somehow managed to squeeze a Core i7 into its impossibly thin 1cm-thick shell. From £1,149, hp.com GAMING LAPTOP RAZER BLADE STEALTH A sumptuous Core i7 processor, a 4K screen, a Razer Chroma-infused keyboard, all in a beautiful ultrabook shell. Add in desktop GPU power via the Thunderbolt 3 Razer Core and you’re in gaming heaven. From £1,349, razerzone.com/gb-en ALL-IN-ONE APPLE IMAC WITH 5K RETINA DISPLAY There’s never been a screen like this. Big enough for every task, detailed, bright, colourful, and it happens to have a Mac stuffed in the back of it as well. From £1,749, apple.com/uk GAMING HEADSET STEELSERIES ARCTIS 7 Super-comfortable thanks…

MATT BOLTON Editor With the results of our big smart home speaker test in (p42), Matt’s started to fill his house with smart assistants. He calls them his “army”, which is definitely doesn’t seem terrifying at all. NICK ODANTZIS Deputy Editor If you want, for some reason, to see a floor you could eat off, head to Nick’s house, where he’s tested four robot vacuum cleaners (p70). They helped clean the mud from his ebike race (p96). CLAIRE DAVIES Associate Editor There’s a calm corner of the office around Claire after her research into using tech to beat the winter blues (p87). It almost seemed like her desk was glowing, but that turned out to be a SAD light. JO GULLIVER Senior Art Editor Jo’s looking at getting a new…

MICHEL HERBELIN MONTMARTE There’s something delightfully vintage about the Montmarte watch, with its soft leather strap and midnight-blue dial. We like the simple, centred complications, too. £495, watchshop.com LOUIS VUITTON TAMBOUR ALL BLACK Louis Vuitton’s new watch is a tribute to drums, and comes with polished anthracite indexes, half-skeleton Superluminova hands and Gaston V signature. £5,620, uk.louisvuitton.com/eng-gb TIMEX + TODD SNYDER THE MOD WATCH Transform your style with this limited-edition watch. The Mod theme comes courtesy of that high-contrast bullseye face, based on a design in the Timex archives. $138 (£104), toddsnyder.com…

JABRA DRIVE From a company that started out in hearing aids, you know the audio on this is going to be good. The Drive looks stunning with a brushed metallic finish, and clips onto any car sun visor. £43, jabra.com PARROT CK3100 There’s a reason the Parrot brand has been around since handsfree Bluetooth became a reality – it works well. The CK3100 uses your car’s speakers for playback and automatically mutes music to take and make calls. £150, parrot.com ICLEVER WIRELESS Budget-friendly and easy to install, the iClever Wireless plugs into your car’s 12v socket for power and can be attached to your mobile. Audio is transmitted via FM to your car radio so you don’t have to worry about cables at installation. £14, amazon.co.uk…

BEAU NUAGE The founders of this French brand set out to “reinvent the concept of the umbrella” by inventing a self-drying cover (included). A triple-layered pocket with microfibre lining absorbs rainwater, drying your brolly when it’s stashed in your bag or pocket. €35 (£30.91), beau-nuage.com BLUNT CLASSIC Here, Blunt sets out to create the ultimate street umbrella. The Classic features a stormresistant, aerodynamic (and wind tunnel-tested) canopy, and has rounded safety tips to stop you from accidentally poking your wet-weather companions in the eye. £59.99, bluntumbrellas.com/uk TOTES XTRA ST RONG AUTO OPEN/CLOSE UMBRELLA Totes’ range of extra-strong umbrellas has an aluminium and fibreglass frame built to withstand the most blustery weather. It also comes with a silicon coating that offers superior water resistance. £28, totes.co.uk…

HISENSE 6800 55-INCH TV A must-have upgrade for your lounge, this slim and striking panel delivers stunning pictures for its £649 price, thanks to its 4K HDR capabilities. IPAD PRO 10.5-INCH With oodles of power, a gorgeous screen and weighing just 468g, the iPad Pro is the best tablet on the market, and a great companion to your 7X at £619. HTC VIVE The best VR experience around for its £599 price, the Vive has an immersive field of view, intuitive 3D controls and a plethora of top-tier VR titles to choose from.…

BOSE QUIETCOMFORT 35 II, £329.95, bose.co.uk Now with added Google Assistant, Bose’s comfy over-ears offer balanced sound and impressive noise cancellation. The plastic design is admittedly bland, but we appreciate the lightweight feel it provides. An instant-mute feature would have made these perfect, but they’re still ace for travellers. AKG N60 NC WIRELESS, £249.99, akg.com These on-ears deliver quality audio, nearly 30 hours playback and reliable Bluetooth connectivity. They’re smaller and fold up neater than the Bose, making them ideal for cramped bags, and can also be used wired. Noise cancellation isn’t as refined as with the Bose, but still effective at dimming the buzz of public spaces.…

01 FOLLOW THE SET-UP INSTRUCTIONS Get the Ring - Always Home app from whichever flavour of app store your device uses. The app has a clear walkthrough process for setting up the doorbell and getting it connected to your Wi-Fi network, including a video tutorial on mounting it properly on the wall. 02 DEVICE OPTIONS One your Ring 2 is added, tap in your list of devices to see all the options for it. You can quickly turn notifications for button presses or motion detection on or off at the top here. The other options take you through to more specialised settings, and useful views such as the event log, for reviewing past videos. 03 MOTION SETTINGS The settings that are worth customising the most are the Motion Settings. Tap…

We all want to squeeze as many photos and/or videos out of our camera battery as possible, but, then again, the smaller form factor of a mirrorless camera necessitates a smaller battery pack than those found in competing DSLRs. So it’s no surprise to find a battery life roughly half that of larger, bulkier interchangeable lens cameras you’ll find on the market. Although around 330 shots is the average for mirrorless (or ‘compact system‘) cameras, certain manufacturers, such as Canon with its M100, have got around this by introducing the option of ‘eco’ modes that turn some features off or introduce restrictions to eke just a bit more juice and longevity out of a fully charged cell. So if you need that one final perfect shot, there’s a chance.…

Winter in the UK brings with it shorter days, less sunshine and a duller sun. If you’re among the estimated 21 per cent of the UK’s population that suffers from the ‘winter blues’, or the eight per cent (and rising) diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder (SAD), winter can be challenging. But how do you know if you’re suffering from the winter blues or a form of SAD? Helen Hanson, Chair of the Seasonal Affective Disorder Association (SADA) charity, describes winter blues as a milder expression of SAD, the latter now recognised medically as a form of depression. “Lack of light causes SAD,” explains Helen. “This lack of light creates a biochemical imbalance in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain which regulates many bodily functions. This explains why SAD affects…

OLED 4K TV SONY A1 SERIES Incredible 4K HDR is only a tiny part of this awesome package. The panel (55- or 65-inch) and bezel are super-slim, it offers lightning response times, and great sound comes from a screen that’s also a speaker. From £2,800, sony.co.uk TOP-END 4K TV LOEWE BILD 9 Loewe creates art just as much as it does high-end AV equipment, and its towering, sculptural bild 9 TV is as attractive as it is exquisitely powerful, with a hidden soundbar and top picture quality. £8,990, loewe.tv VALUE 4K BLU-RAY PLAYER XBOX ONES Yes, this is primarily a games console, but it’s a damn good UHD Blu-ray player too. Why pay more for something that just plays discs when you could be getting your game on with the…

As we started to approach the end of 2017, we knew we were going to be overloaded with smart home speakers. Everyone had the same idea: ‘if the original Echo wasn’t very good at playing music, let’s do one that is!’ So here we are, inundated with audio companies adding Alexa into wireless speakers, and Amazon adding beefier drives into its new Echo line-up. How the hell are we ever going to sort the wheat from chaff? In a giant show-down, obviously – all the best, smartest options in one place. And that place is p42. Whatever your priority, whether it’s smart home control or audio quality, we’ve got the pick for you. We’re big fans of ebikes here on T3, but we tend to focus on them for commuters…

JAMMY Practise guitar whenever and wherever you want with this backpack-friendly digital six-string. The Jammy has a sliding neck that extends out, plus a headphone jack. An app is also being developed to help you learn songs. $449 (£336), playjammy.com UNISTELLAR EVSCOPE Developed in partnership with the SETI Institute, the potentially groundbreaking eVscope will use Enhanced Vision tech to create amplified pictures, helping you see the cosmos in incredible detail. $1,900 (£1,424), unistellaroptics.com…

THE COAT Idris Elba couldn’t care less about traditional red carpet style. We love his olive trench worn over a black Burberry polo. For a similar look try the Michael Kors Cotton-blend Trench Coat (£350, michaelkors.co.uk). THE TROUSERS Idris allows extra length at the bottom of his chinostyle pants to sit over those knock-out sneakers. Do the same with a pair of longerlength Selected Homme Slim Fit Chinos in Decadent (£55, asos.com). THE SHOES Christian Louboutin’s sneaker-boot hybrids lend Idris’s outfit a tougher edge. Step out in similar style with Louboutin’s Louis Calf shoes (£595, christianlouboutin.com/uk_en).…

The number of people working from home is rising. Although this option has clear perks, it can be tricky to tune back into home life if your office space is staring at you from the corner of your living room. Enter office pods. These slick mini offices perch at the end of your garden, providing enough space to work comfortably while keeping home separate. Pod (pod-space.co.uk) has picked up several Red Dot design awards for its range of innovative offices. Our favourite is the Lite Pod 2 (from £21,980), an open-plan studio clad in larch. One side of the pod is entirely glass, and digitally controlled underfloor heating ensures your toes stay toasty. A similar but cheaper option is the Solo Ultra from Smart Garden Offices (from £9,995, smartgardenoffices.co.uk). A…

SICILY Fabulous food, evocative Greek and Roman ruins and a vibrant atmosphere, Sicily is a terrific and rewarding place to visit for Easter sun. Bustling, chaotic and noisy Palermo is a must for city life, while Cefalù has a wonderful sandy beach for you to wander in warmth. MOROCCO Whether it’s meandering around the souks of Marrakech or windsurfing in laid-back Essaouira, Morocco has near-on eight hours of sunshine at that time of year and highs of around 27 degrees. It’ll be less crowded at that time, but the mountains are cooler. CRETE Beaches, hiking, ancient palaces and towns… Megalonisos (The Great Island) has a lot going for it and, crucially, has one of the earliest springs in the Mediterranean. It’s worth noting that the south is warmer than the…

INOV-8 PARKCLAW 275 GTX Designed for trails, park runs and for those transitioning from road to trail running. Aggressive grip is mated to the remarkable GORE Invisible Fit tech – fully waterproof but with a normal running shoe feel. £140, inov-8.com THE NORTH FACE ULTRA ENDURANCE GTX Designed for long distances off-road, these are heavy but well-cushioned underfoot, and the sole’s Ultra Protect CRADLE tech means they’re snug on the inside. Vibram Megagrip provides traction in all wet weather conditions. £120, thenorthface.co.uk SALOMON SPEED CROSS 4 GTX This lightweight, aggressive shoe is a weather-proof allrounder. A combination of Premium Wet Traction and Vibram Megagrip will grip most surfaces hard, while the Salomon Flex Engineered with Gore-Tex keeps the nasty weather out. £130, salomon.com/uk…

GaGu’s office, in the dank basement of Guru towers, tends to get a little frigid in the winter, particularly because your author is far too stingy to have the heating on. The same concern does not extend to his electricity bill, though, which is handy: he can’t do without his Betterlife Heated Foot Warmer (GaGu got it for £20, and so might you). Chompsky loves curling up on it, and it ensures that, in combination with Guru’s awesome new Berghaus Extrem Ramche jacket (£350), at least one person in the house is toasty-warm. The hoarding edifice of gadget mountain remains a concern, but there’s a new item tossed on top: the Blisso Ultrasonic Pest Repeller (£40, or possibly less, for a pair). GaGu won’t say that it doesn’t work, because…

THEFT PREVENTION The Ring 2 can be mounted directly, but it also comes with two different wall mounts, one angled to the side and one angled down, so you can get the best view of your house. When you mount the ring, you use tamperproof screws, which should prevent any opportunist thieves from grabbing it. However, if someone does half-inch your bell, Ring has a policy to provide a free replacement – see bit.ly/ringstolen for details. BATTERY OR WIRED The Ring 2 comes with a rechargeable battery that should last six months, so you can install it anywhere, but you can wire it into an existing doorbell system, which will give it power and trigger your chime. (If you want a wireless chime inside the house to trigger when someone…

BEGIN BUILDING Log in to IFTTT and begin creating an applet by selecting your Gmail account as its ‘If’. Not on Gmail? You can use IFTTT’s email trigger: set up an auto-forward from your email to the trigger address given. CHOOSE A TRIGGER Select the ‘New email in inbox from’ trigger, enter the address you want to watch for and hit ‘Create Trigger’. Bear in mind the message will have to land in your inbox – if you filter it elsewhere, the action won’t fire. WHAT HAPPENS? It’s time to choose the ‘that’ portion of your applet. There’s a massive list of actions to choose from, but you can narrow it down with the search box. A good start might be to change your lights’ colour.…

Just going by specification, the 24- megapixel resolutions offered by the Canon and Fuji cameras on test here would seem to out-gun the Olympus’ relatively humble 16.1 megapixels. But, of course, that’s only if we’re playing the numbers game. Pixels aren’t everything, because the ability of the lens in use to resolve all that information, and the physical dimensions of the sensor onto which light is directed, also play their part. The Canon and Fuji offer larger APS-C-sized sensors, as typically found in DSLRs, while the Olympus uses the smaller Four Thirds type. But if using a smaller chip, cramming less pixels onto it makes sense, because overcrowding can lead to visible image grain or ‘noise’ the darker the shooting conditions get.…

01 GET UP EARLY …to catch the light. Landscape photographers are always up at an unpleasant hour to catch the dawn mist rising as the golden rays of the sun break through the dim. It’s not just that they are better photographers than the rest of us, just that they made the special effort. 02 TAKE A LOT OF PICTURES It’s a rule-of-thumb that professional photographers swear by. The more shots you take, the more likely you are to capture that decisive ‘wow’ moment. As you’re shooting digitally, there is no added cost to taking more pictures! 03 MAKE USE OF OFF-CAMERA FLASH …or off-camera lighting of any description, including continuous LEDs. This allows you to control the light better than any built-in bulb. Thus harsh, unflattering shadows when taking…

DOPPEL A case of winter blues can become SAD when stress enters the mix, so use Doppel to keep stress levels in check. It does this by creating a silent vibration on your wrist, the slow rhythm of which encourages you to take a few breaths when you’re agitated and find your inner zen. $179 (£132.86), feeldoppel.com LIFX MINI DAY & DUSK LIGHTS Creating customisable schedules of warm lighting in your home can mimic natural dusk and dawn patterns regardless of how little daylight winter offers, helping you to maintain a sleep routine. LIFX’s lights are ideal for single rooms or whole-house coverage. From £29.99, uk.lifx.com NEST LEARNING THERMOSTAT According to the NHS, simply staying warm can reduce winter blues by half. Nest’s Learning Thermostat enables you to control your…

We all love to have our favourite songs with us wherever we are, and listen to them in the best possible quality. But to do both, you need a portable music player with better audio-playing components than your average phone is built with. That’s where the brilliant Pioneer XDP-30R comes in. This portable music player can play tunes stored on microSD cards (it has two slots, enabling up to 400GB of storage) in audiophile-level files, including DSD, FLAC, ALAC and WAV in addition to the usual MP4 and AA C formats. It even supports the new MQA format for master-quality audio that sounds like you’re in the studio. Your music will sound so much better than a non-dedicated player thanks to the advanced circuitry built in, which draws on Pioneer’s…

MULTI-ROOM SPEAKERS SONOS ONE Pound for pound, this is a hell of a lot of speaker for your money, easily filling a room, and expandable through the versatile Sonos speaker range. Built-in Alexa support clinches it for Sonos. £199, sonos.com PORTABLE BLUETOOTH SPEAKER CAMBRIDGE AU DIO YOYO M These portable speakers are made for wireless stereo sound and come as a pair (though you can use one on its own). They offer punchy audio in an impressively wide sound field, and look great, too. £299, cambridgeaudio.com WIRELESS IN-EAR HEADPHONES FLARES PRO These headphones plug into a mini-DAC you need to clip about your person, but the result is truly amazing sound for the size. It’s audiophile stuff, with beautiful stereo channel separation. £349, flareaudio.com WIRED IN-EAR HEADPHONES SENNHEISER MOMENTUM M2IE…

FAMILY CAR VOLVO XC60 Well-appointed and exquisitely designed, this mid-size hybrid SUV has all the entertainment options you need, the poise to make those long journeys smooth and enjoyable, and is safe as houses. From £35,655, volvocars.com/uk CITY ELECTRIC CAR BMW I3 BMW’s i3 is a responsive, highly practical electric runabout packed with connectivity options and enough power in its 170bhp motor to hit 62mph in just 7.3 seconds. Perfect for a daily commute. From £30,250, bmw.co.uk CAR DISPLAY NAVDY An innovation that takes the concept of the car heads-up display to the next level, with translucent mapping in your eyeline and gesture control so you can answer calls or dismiss alerts with a wave. £399, navdy.com DASH CAM GARMIN DASH CAM 55 Constantly watching the road, the Dash Cam…

COFFEE MAKER GAGGIA NAVIGLIO Everything you need to create a delicious bean-to-cup brew at an entry-level price. Gaggia’s pedigree is all poured into this quality espresso maker, and proves you don’t need to spend a penny more. £439, gaggia.uk.com COOKER RANGEMASTER ELISE 110 Want the versatility of gas hobs and the reliability of an electric oven? This dual-fuel range is the ultimate in kitchen convenience, with six solid burners, two ovens and a grill with glide-out action. £2,379, rangemaster.co.uk DEHUMIDIFIER Meaco 25L Ultra Low Energy Dehumidifier This small unit can drag 25 litres of water out of the air in a day, perfect for drying clothes indoors without the risk of mould or condensation ruining your windows. £299, meaco.com WASHING MACHINE MIELE WKG 120 Pre-load enough detergent for 30 washes,…

ENTRY-LEVEL DSLR CANON EOS 800D Make no mistake: the EOS 800D’s tech, trickled down from higher models in the line, is remarkable. It offers up 45-point autofocus, a touch-sensitive screen and awesome image quality. £779, canon.com MIRRORLESS CAMERA SONY A9 Cleverly engineered to put every component right behind the 24.2MP sensor for speed, the A9 can shoot at a ridiculous 20fps, take 4K video, and has 693-point focus with a full-frame sensor. £4,499, sony.co.uk ACTION CAMERA GOPRO HERO 6 BLACK The most advanced action camera on the planet can shoot stunning 4K video at 60fps, with advanced stabilisation making footage super-smooth and realistic. It’s also waterproof to 10m without a case. £499, gopro.com RUNNING WATCH GARMIN FORERUNNER 935 The Forerunner 935 measures every aspect of your workout, from heart rate…